About Heritable
Hi I'm Patrick Metzger, founder and CEO of Heritable.
I started building Heritable in 2025 after I ran into the problem that undoubtedly brought many of you here. My family had a ton of photos, home movies, and letters digitized, even books written by our ancestors, but we had nowhere to put it all that we trusted, that was user-friendly, that wouldn't use our data for advertising or AI training, and that didn't require painstaking abstract folder schemas.
I wanted a "Shared Archive"—one central place where I could upload everything (TB of data, not GB), tag the relatives involved, and give access to my extended family so the history doesn't depend on just me.
I couldn't find it, so I built Heritable.
Thank you to everyone who has already shared so much great feedback and helped make this an even better platform that enables people to tell their family's story.
We've got many more great things in the works. Stay tuned!
Changelog
February 8, 2026
- High-Scale Infrastructure: Implemented 8MB chunked streaming for uploads and refactored video workflows to download files from B2 only once, reducing RAM usage and processing time for large assets.
- Advanced Family Tree Imports: Upgraded the "Import a Family Tree" (GEDCOM) tool with a side-by-side merge preview, manual person-linking, and persistent sessions that prevent data loss during long review periods.
- Flexible Date Precision: Launched support for partial dates (Year-only or Month/Year) and standardized a global, unambiguous date format (e.g., "Mar 4, 1988") across the entire application to eliminate international confusion.
- Archive Management & Deletion Safety: Added an "Import from Heritable" tool for porting data between archives. When someone goes to delete an archive they'll now see a detailed breakdown of "Exclusive" vs. "Shared" data to prevent accidental data loss.
- Upload UX & Network Overhaul: Redesigned the upload modal with a thumbnail grid and in-modal batch editing. Rebuilt the Web View (Network Graph) with dynamic scaling for 500+ nodes.
- Enhanced Accessibility & Fixes: Added a public contact page, standardized application-wide rounding (8px), optimized checkout.
February 7, 2026
- Automatic Video Scene Detection: Introduced scene detection for video uploads. The system now automatically segments videos into chapters with dedicated thumbnails, a visual segment bar for navigation, and editable labels/tags for easy searching within long-form footage.
- Archive Duplication & Content Management: Launched a "Duplicate Archive Contents" tool that allows admins to copy entire archives (including people, assets, and metadata) between libraries. This feature intelligently manages storage by sharing file references for same-library copies to save space.
- Infrastructure & Upload Reliability: Increased the maximum file upload limit to 10GB and implemented a robust background recovery system. If a server deployment interrupts video transcoding or scene detection, the system now automatically detects stuck processes and re-queues them on startup.
February 6, 2026
- "Mental Remodel" (Multi-Archive Architecture): Completed a massive infrastructure overhaul to support multiple Archives within a single Library. This includes a complete terminology shift from "Family" to "Archive," dedicated Archive Settings for member management, and the ability to switch between different family trees seamlessly.
- Cross-Archive Entity Sharing & Transfers: Launched the ability to share people, assets, and events between archives within the same library with bidirectional editing support. Added a formal Archive Ownership Transfer system, allowing users to move entire archives between different subscription libraries.
February 5, 2026
- Tree & Layout Engineering: Overhauled the family tree algorithm to unjumble cousin interleaving, and implement animated collapse/expand handles with smart zoom-scaling.
February 4, 2026
- Core Experience Refinement: Continued optimization of the family tree auto-layout algorithm for more stable positioning and launched a new interactive, drag-and-drop profile photo upload workflow.
February 2, 2026
- Unified Navigation: Added a "Recenter" button in Tree and Web views with smooth transitions. Made hamburger menu consistent across all marketing and resource pages
- Workflow Improvements: Added direct drag-and-drop file uploads to the family tree and person modals, and introduced a "Last Name at Birth" field for improved genealogical tracking.
- Pricing Overhaul: Restyled the Subscription and Pricing pages to prioritize standard plans while featuring the "Founding Member" lifetime deal as a compact callout.
February 1, 2026
- Advanced Tree Interactions: Introduced "Lock Groups" for multi-person movement and animated collapse/expand features for managing complex ancestor/descendant views.
- Relationship & Layout Overhaul: Allow adding siblings (i.e. not just from their parents), revamped edge routing with a new bracket-style system, and implemented automated birth-order sorting for children.
- Web View & UX Polish: Enhanced navigation with natural scrolling.
January 30, 2026
- Platform Polish: Optimized family tree and web view layouts for better readability, streamlined the "Add Person" flow, and enhanced photo tagging with a persistent editing mode.
January 27, 2026
- Family Tree & Profile Enhancements: Improved the layout algorithm with better collision detection and spouse placement, and streamlined profile photo workflows with direct upload and tagging prompts.
January 26, 2026
- Nickname & Suffix Metadata: Added support for nicknames and generational suffixes across the UI and database
January 25, 2026
- Mobile Experience & Modal UX: Redesigned person and event modals into iOS-style bottom sheets to resolve browser chrome overlap and fixed keyboard avoidance and input overflow bugs.
- Feature Flags: Introduced a backend-driven feature flag system for safe experimental rollouts.
January 24, 2026
- Admin Tools: Implemented a staging database reset tool for developers to clear test data while preserving essential accounts and assets.
January 23, 2026
- Timeline View: Built a new multi-generational timeline to visualize family events, media, and milestones across a chronological scale.
- Portrait Cropping: Added a visual tool to precisely crop and center profile photos for person portraits directly within the app.
- Location Tagging: Integrated Geoapify for asset and event tagging, featuring debounced search and location cascading for linked media.
- Learn Section: Introduced a new resource center with SEO-optimized articles and educational layouts for digital archiving.
- Thumbnail Optimization: Migrated to WebP format with improved compression and background processing for faster page loads.
- Email System: Rebuilt and standardized all seven system email templates with a consistent new brand identity.
January 20, 2026
- Location Tagging: Introduced Geoapify integration to search and tag addresses on assets and events, including automatic location syncing for linked media.
- Face Tagging: Built a new mode to place markers on faces in photos and link them to people, featuring visual indicators when hovering over names.
- Advanced Search: Expanded search results to include people and events, ensuring event searches return all specifically tagged assets.
- PDF Support: Implemented a multi-page viewer with text selection and navigation, plus automatic thumbnail generation for the first page of documents.
- User Interface: Updated terminology to "Partner," improved web view node dragging, and added "Add Connections" to the Person Modal for faster tree building.
January 19, 2026
- Video Processing: Implemented async metadata extraction, transcoding logs, a custom mobile player, and video tagging support.
- Web View (Network Graph): Launched a new Sigma.js-powered network graph visualization with profile photos, custom labels, and persistent preferences.
- Family Tree Enhancements: Added position persistence, snap-to-grid, collision detection, and improved mobile UX.
- Performance & Stability: Fixed duplicate email race conditions, optimized browser resource usage, and enhanced application-wide logging.
- User Experience: Improved breadcrumb navigation, password reset flow, and added toast notifications for key actions.
- Bug Fixes: Resolved issues with GPS data parsing, date formatting, and feedback submission.
January 16, 2026
- Asset Highlights: You can now "Highlight" specific photos and videos on a Person's profile, pinning them to the top of their media list.
- "This Is Me": Added the ability to link your user account to your own Person profile in the family tree.
- Onboarding Checklist: A new guide to help you get started with setting up your family archive.
- Share Notifications: Improved email notifications when inviting people via share links.
- File Support: Added support for MKV video files.
January 15, 2026
- Share Memories: Added a "Share" button to assets and person profiles.
- Flexible Links: Create public links (accessible by anyone) or restricted links (family members only).
- Share View: A dedicated viewing experience for shared content with seamless login/signup.
January 14, 2026
- Bulk Upload: Added drag-and-drop support for folders and multiple files directly into the Bulk Upload modal.
- Roles Updated: "Owner" is now Admin and "Member" is now Editor, with stricter permission controls.
January 13, 2026
- Event Management: Launched a new Event Detail Page showing all people and media for an event.
- Bulk Actions: Sticky toolbar in Search for bulk tagging (People/Events) and deleting items.
- Search Upgrades: Added "Upload" button and drag-and-drop support directly in search results.
- Waitlist: Launched the new homepage and waitlist system.
January 9, 2026
- Performance: Improved photo caching and accessibility updates.
- Trial Fixes: Resolved issues with the 14-day trial period logic.
January 8, 2026
- Authentication: Major improvements to the signup flow and email reliability (switched to Resend).
- GEDCOM: Enhancements to family tree import compatibility.
January 7, 2026
- Email Notifications: Comprehensive notification system for family activity.
January 6, 2026
- In-App Notifications: Added a notification bell and center for real-time updates.
January 5, 2026
- Comments: Introduced commenting on assets and stories.
- Data Export: Added "Download All" functionality for your data.
January 2, 2026
- Bulk Upload: Initial release of the bulk upload tool.
- Analytics: Usage tracking and analytics dashboard.
December 30, 2025
- Person Creation: Enhanced "Add Person" flow with detailed fields.
- Family Tree Controls: Added interactive navigation controls.
December 28, 2025
- Subscriptions: Launched subscription tiers and management.
- Multi-Tenancy: Completed architecture for supporting multiple families.
December 26, 2025
- Family Tree: Initial release of the interactive Family Tree visualization.
December 17, 2025
- Foundation: Initial functional release with Multi-Tenant Architecture and Authentication.
October 4, 2025
- Project Inception: Initial codebase setup.
- Established core architecture (FastAPI + React/Vite + Postgres).
- Defined the "Archive Hub" data model for People, Events, and Assets.
- Integrated Search (Meilisearch) and Storage (Backblaze B2) foundations.